


Observations of a DI

by Kate_Lear



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-12
Updated: 2013-03-12
Packaged: 2017-12-05 03:25:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/718319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kate_Lear/pseuds/Kate_Lear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lestrade's impressions of Sherlock.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Observations of a DI

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fengirl88](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fengirl88/gifts).



> Four 221B's as a small and terribly belated birthday fic-gift for fengirl88. Um, happy unbirthday! And thanks to ginbitch for sterling beta-reading.

Lestrade first meets Sherlock on a cold February morning. It’s during a case: a grisly, wretched, and above all _public_ murder down by St Katharine’s Docks that proves almost impossible to keep the public away from. Lestrade’s been a DI now for long enough that the shine has worn off his promotion, but not so long that he’s not still desperate to prove himself and he’s almost at the end of his tether trying to make sure that procedure is followed in such a difficult location and when his team are under such scrutiny.

The crowds milling about on the other side of the police tape are exactly what he _doesn’t_ need right now, dropping their scraps of paper and empty coffee cups and cigarette butts right where the wind can catch them and blow them into his crime scene. A scene that’s already proving to be difficult enough to sort out without the added debris from bored office workers wanting to add a morbid bit of excitement to their lunch break.

Meeting a lanky, snide, upper-class twerp is just the last straw, never mind the constant running commentary on the mistakes his team are making, so when the man repeatedly ignores the requests to leave then Lestrade does the only thing he can think of. He arrests the annoying bastard.

\----------

All Sherlock’s observations prove to be correct, and Lestrade can’t decide whether to be annoyed or amazed. He vacillates between them over the ensuing months, finding himself dropping by Sherlock’s lodgings and more often than not taking him out for coffee or lunch, given that Sherlock is thin almost to the point of looking unhealthy with it.

Lestrade won’t have Sherlock on his crime scenes. Occasionally Sherlock’s energy has an edge to it that Lestrade doesn’t like at all; it gives Lestrade dark suspicions of what he might get up to in his spare time with the dubious characters that he’s sometimes met leaving Sherlock’s rooms. Sherlock’s sarcastic comments aside, Lestrade has had to actually _work_ for his promotion and part of his job is watching people and noticing quirks and patterns of behaviour.

But he’s only some random bloke that Sherlock knows and his one attempt at a friendly warning shrivels under the heat of Sherlock’s glare. There’s nothing more he can do: short of Sherlock providing him with incontrovertible proof and practically _forcing_ Lestrade to arrest him then Lestrade can only mind his own business.

Until he drops round to Sherlock’s flat one afternoon to find the place empty apart from a man in a three-piece suit, who solemnly informs him that Sherlock is unavailable for the time being.

\----------

Sherlock post-rehab is a dry, brittle creature. He responds to Lestrade’s summons but he’s far more sober and serious than Lestrade has ever seen him. All the joy seems to have left him, to the point that Lestrade lets Sherlock onto more crime scenes than he ever dared before. It doesn't seem to help much, but it's the best Lestrade can offer.

Sherlock sets himself up a website that brings in private clients; he even travels to Florida for one of them, but doesn’t shake off his distant air.

At Sherlock’s announcement that he’s being thrown out of his Montague Street place, Lestrade is entirely unsurprised. He must be a right nightmare to live with, and yet it can’t be a good idea for him to be too much alone. God knows where he’ll find someone who’ll put up with him, though.

The first time Lestrade meets Dr Watson he barely glances at him, sitting unassumingly in that armchair. And at the crime scene: Watson hadn’t had anything to offer them beyond what they already knew but if Lestrade didn’t know better he’d say Sherlock was _showing off_ for him, peacock-like.

Nice as it is to see Sherlock more like his old self, Lestrade will eat his hat if there’s not more to this than the occasional soft exclamation of ‘Brilliant.’

\----------

The scene is a mess. Sherlock is found with a corpse in a pool of blood who was apparently the killer; there’s no trace of Sherlock’s mystery saviour and so Lestrade quickly finds himself responsible for stopping the killer and rescuing Sherlock Holmes, a helpless civilian who’s suffering dreadfully from shock. Or such is the assumption of the emergency services personnel on the scene, given Sherlock’s distracted air and the way he mutters to himself.

Lestrade snaps a surreptitious picture before joining Sherlock. Joking aside, his heart had plummeted at Sherlock’s disappearance; it would be just like Sherlock’s massive ego to get him killed while proving a point. But Sherlock is suffering nothing more severe than a dent to his sartorial pride under the lurid orange blanket and Lestrade teases him before producing his notebook; telling Sherlock that the shooter is untraceable is the quickest way to get him talking.

But the hairs on Lestrade’s nape prickle, and he glances up to see Dr Watson in the act of looking away; he slows and stops, and almost at the same moment Sherlock’s deductions dry up.

Lestrade lets him go when Sherlock moves off. There’s a light in Sherlock’s eyes that Lestrade hasn’t seen for far too long, and he contemplates Dr Watson thoughtfully as he slowly, subtly, tucks away his book.

\--End--


End file.
